Michael Bloomberg said Saturday he's buying three minutes of airtime on CBS and NBC Sunday night for what he's billing as an "address to the nation" on the threat of the coronavirus and to criticize President Donald Trump's response.
"The coronavirus is spreading, and the economy is taking a hit. Markets have fallen because of uncertainty," Bloomberg says in the commercial, according to a script released by his campaign. "At times like this it is the job of the president to reassure the public that he or she is taking all the necessary steps to protect the health and well-being of every citizen."
(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)
Bloomberg has been saying all week that Trump "buried his head in the sand" instead of preparing for a possible outbreak and "his incompetence put us all at risk." Bloomberg and other Democratic candidates have also criticized Trump for calling the outbreak a Democratic hoax, saying at an event Saturday in Virginia that "at a time when the president should be putting politics aside and rallying the American people behind him, he continues to divide by playing partisan politics."
It's unclear how much two three-minute ads running on two broadcast networks cost Bloomberg, who is self-funding his campaign and has spent more than $538 million on advertising so far.
The former New York mayor is touting his experience helping the city recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to make the case ahead of voting in Super Tuesday states that he's the best manager running to defeat Trump.
